Tuesday Tunes: Summer Pop

What is the sound of summer? For me, at least for the last five years, it's pretty much always been HAIM. But I've been mixing it up this year to incorporate more City Pop, and friends, I cannot recommend it enough.

What is City Pop you ask? Great question! There's no strict definition, but Justice Potter Stewart would probably say "you know it when you hear it". It's a genre of Japanese pop music from the 70s/80s that is very heavily influenced by western pop and funk music. Japan was coming out of its post-war era and finding its footing again. The economy was booming, money was rolling in, and with that, the need for affluent yuppie vibes was there.

Enter City Pop, which is just...fun? Well, it's sonically fun, but lyrically, City Pop is lyrically quite sad. Well, maybe "sad" is overstating it. But there's certainly a sense of ennui. Fun bops with melancholy lyrics? That's, literally, my jam.

I'll focus on the Kings of City Pop in another post, but for now, we're going to do what Forty Deuce always does: focus on the ladies. When I was in Tokyo in February, I was finally able to make my way to the Tower Records (!!!) in Shibuya and picked up a bunch of classic City Pop records. So I've been spinning those for most of the last few months.

Here are some of the foundational and most iconic City Pop songs to either get you started or, if you're familiar with the genre already, get you groovin' to the classics.

I'm always looking for music recommendations. Got something you want me to spin? Drop a note in the comments, Discord, or BlueSky.